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I know this will sound like a dumb question but not knowing anything about X-Tracks I thought this would be the place to ask. I've seen several routes that use the X-Tracks in their developement and would like to know that if I loading one of these with the required tsection.dat files changes in the Global folder will it affect any of the other routes that I have? Also is it necessary to have the entire X-Tracks 3.3 version loaded or can it be just the required files? It's obvious that I don't do any route planning but would like to run some of the routes that use this system. Thanks, Pinpuller
Download XTracks and read the instructions. They are quite complete.If you want more information, do a search in the forum using "xtracks" as your search term. There is more than enough information to keep you happy for quite some time. Lawrence
Off the top, you will do NO harm to an unmodified MSTS by adding Xtracks AND RTFM.Almost all issues around xtracks stem from not taking the time to read the doc and do it right. Just like when you are a kid and got that fancy trainset for Xmas. Didn't read the instructions and blew the enginge with the power supply hooked up wrong!So, download it, read the instructions, and if you don't have a condition it won't work with, go for it. WORST case is a reinstall of MSTS and adding back the downloaded routes.Martyn T. Griffin griffinmt@mindspring.com
Just to add one more caution to the above. Back up your Trainsim\global folder to a different place before doing anything with it.As the above have basically said, XTracks simply sits there doing nothing until called for by a route that has been developed with it. If you have no plans to get into the route editor, there should be no problem .. but againRead the ManualBackup Trainsim\globalbefore doing anything.
None of the above answered your question about needing the full package and the answer is yes. You do need to download and install the full XTracks package the first time you do it. When you have version 3.3 and want to upgrade to version 3.4 (when that is out) you will only need the upgrade. It's not enough having the new tsection.dat only, there's a lot of other things in XTracks (or the download would not be 7MB) and you do need it all even if not building any routes of your own. Be sure to make a copy of your Train Simulator/Global folder before installing and you can easily recover if somethings goes wrong. You should not add files any other place than the global folder.
Many thanks to all for the timely advice and I will back up my Global folder before loading anything. And yes, I was, am, one of those that would/will get things going before reading ALL of the instructions. Isn't that part of computing? However, since being involved with MSTS and some flight sims, I have adopted the procedure of reading the 'read me' or 'text' before doing anything. Thanks again to all, Pinpuller
When it comes to XTracks trying before reading is a very bad choise. Doing it wrong can easily make MSTS non-startable and/or destroy a route you're working on. Please read through the istallation instructions carefully before doing anything.
